Ten things you never knew about Ophelia
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/by Benjamin Secher
12:01AM BST 22 Sep 2007
Ophelia, John Everett Millais’s bewitching depiction of Hamlet’s sweetheart sinking to a watery death, is one of the most familiar images in art.
It has adorned the walls of the Tate for most of the 110 years since the gallery opened, attracting millions of viewers to admire its forensic detail – and buy the postcard, which remains a runaway bestseller in the gallery shops.
As the painting takes centre stage in a new Tate exhibition of Millais’s work, here’s an alternative guide to some of the lesser known facts about his masterpiece.
1 Millais suffered for his artAfter identifying a suitably bucolic setting for his picture, Millais perched at his easel on the banks of the Hogsmill River in Surrey for up to 11 hours a day, six days a week throughout a five-month period in 1851. He was determined to capture with unprecedented accuracy the natural scene before his eyes – but such devotion to his art came at a cost.
“The flies of Surrey are more muscular, and have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh,†he grumbled in a letter to a friend.
“I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay… and am also in danger of being blown by the wind into the water. Certainly the painting of a picture under such circumstances would be greater punishment to a murderer than hanging.â€
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